This invention relates to aligning apparatus for motor vehicle racing and more particularly to apparatus for directing the passage of racing vehicles at the start of a race.
High speed motor vehicle races are generally officially started with the vehicles traveling at a high speed after having traveled one or two pre-race laps around the track. The vehicles are generally aligned in parallel rows and the position of each vehicle is predetermined by time trials which might occur, for instance, throughout the weeks preceding the race. In the celebrated Indianapolis 500 race, which is customarily held at the end of May of each year, a pace car precedes the lead cars of parallel rows of racing vehicles during the warm-up laps. The pace car will drive to the inside of the track at the last turn preceding the starting line. Each racing vehicle is supposed to stay in its respective line until it has crossed the start line, after which it is permitted to negotiate the complete width of the track. As soon as the lead cars of the parallel rows reach the start line, the race is officially started the natural tendency for the trailing racers upon seeing the starting signal is to drive immediately to anyplace on the track to pass the preceding cars even though the trailing cars have not yet crossed the start line. Since considerable numbers of cars are grouped together at the start, a major jam-up frequently occurs between the starting line and the first turn of the race causing serious accidents, such as that which occurred at the Indianapolis 500 race held in 1973. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide apparatus which will minimize the accidents occurring at the start of a motor vehicle race.
Another object of the present invention is to provide aligning apparatus for directing motor vehicles during their transit from their positions at the official start of a race to the official starting line.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide aligning apparatus for directing the movement of motor vehicles at the start of a race, including resilient track dividers for defining lanes through which the motor vehicles pass in side-by-side rows.
Yet a further object of the present invention is to provide motor vehicle aligning apparatus of the type described which can be easily removed from the race track when not in use.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide apparatus which positively requires the vehicles to pass beyond a predetermined line before they are at liberty to drive the full width of the race track at the official start of a race.